


The Navy is Justice

by HollowIsTheWorld



Category: One Piece
Genre: Gen, i dont know how to tag this, its about the marines, thats all ive got for you
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-21
Updated: 2016-10-21
Packaged: 2018-08-23 17:12:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,150
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8335732
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HollowIsTheWorld/pseuds/HollowIsTheWorld
Summary: The Navy is justice. The Navy is this.





	

_The Navy is Justice._

The Navy is this. An old man with more grandchildren than he remembers agreeing to raise, each of them declaring their own tiny war, against the world, against themselves. Watching them reach for freedom and trying to collar them, drag them back to the earth on heavy chains because he knows what the world does to people who dare to fly higher than they are allowed and he would rather see their wings bound than broken. Pushing them to grow up faster than he wants because it will be better than if they never grow up at all.

The Navy is a boy who lives in terror of pirates, who sees men in white and blue and sees saviors and protectors and human beings with families they love. He falls asleep surrounded by his enemy and imagines his captors in handcuffs while he wears a white coat with large black letters printed across the back. He knows what the Navy is and anything that isn’t right is not Navy, is only pretending.

The Navy is a woman who cannot stay out of trouble but who knows the pirates are the real danger of the world and that she must do her part against them. Who picks up her gun and holds her ground and will not let them pass her. Who sees orphans made from the war she fought in and knows she will not let them disappear with their home and their parents. She grits her teeth and lives and loves and holds her head high as she faces the world she would die to protect.

The Navy is a group of men who see a man who they would have considered an ally, who they know has committed no crime, and turn their heads so they don’t have to watch him die. Who hear a little girl crying out with fear and bow their heads so the brim of their hats cover their eyes and tell themselves the only man to blame is the one who gave the order. They pull the triggers on their guns and say they are not the executioners and they do not look at the blood soaking their hands.

The Navy is a little girl who grew up with an old Navy uniform stored away under her mother’s bed. Who thought _Marine_ and pictured kind eyes and thought _brave, strong, kind_. Whose hands shook with fear and grief and anger while she bit her lip bloody to keep back the tears. Who saw the flag of the World Government across the water and thought _saved_ for only a moment. It was terrible to see her could-be rescuers sunk at sea. It was worse when they would come and see the chains that held her in place and walk away with the key. She learns to hate the sight of white and blue flags on the horizon.

The Navy is a man who is supposed to be one of the most powerful people in all the world, sitting at a table with his son’s murderer, and knowing he must be polite, must play his games. He sees the terror in the eyes of his men and wonders if his son’s face looked like that too, before he smiled.

The Navy is a little girl crying alone in a rowboat because the only people who ever loved her read the wrong books. Or perhaps because they read the right ones.

The Navy is ice and magma and the words _acceptable casualties_ being different numbers for both. That number being zero for neither.

The Navy is a boy who smiles as though the cruelties of the world only bounce off him again, wanted dead or alive. A man who sneers as he watches a desert country burn away from the match he dropped, not wanted at all. A man who watches them both and cannot make himself take handcuffs to either, who leaves the country to burn or be saved and hopes he can live with himself once the battle is over.

The Navy is a boy who hates the blood his heart pumps through his veins, who becomes a man who will die because of that blood, who has committed an unforgivable crime by the act of being born into a world that treats the blood in his body as more than the fire in his heart.

The Navy is the words _auction house_ spilling out, demanding to be heard, but being drowned out by a firm statement of _employment office_. It is men pretending not to taste the blood in their mouths at the words and teaching their eyes not to see the collars around the necks of people with broken spirits.

The Navy is clipping a leash to beasts they are too afraid to fight and pretending they could pick them up and reel them in at the slightest whim. Pretending not to notice when countries drown in fire and blood or armies have guns that they should not. Nodding at the reports of massacres and agreeing that it was for the best, that their monster did just as it was ordered. Not turning to acknowledge the fangs that will close around their throats at the first opportunity.

The Navy is a woman swallowing her pride and dropping to her knees to save those who have put their lives in her hands, to put herself between the enemy and those she has sworn to protect with her life and her blade. It is fighting the law because the law is not the shield she was promised, and she refuses to listen to the knife at her throat.

The Navy is a man who marched back into the hell he had escaped from and smiled at it, played dumb and sweet to lock the devils there away from the world. Who cringed with every hurt he caused, but knew his hurt was a tiny necessity against what his brother wanted to unleash. Who threw all those goals and duties away for a little boy who needed him; traded his medals and promotions and honors for a bloodbath in the snow.

The Navy is a blind man who turns his weakness to a strength and plants himself between the civilians and the rest of the world and will not budge, no matter what color of hat his attacker wears.

The Navy is children crying because their heroes fly a black flag and they are surrounded by people vowing to shoot it down. Lines drawn in the sand that they know they could jump over, but they can’t seem to get close enough to manage it.

The Navy is a white flag with a black symbol, warring against a black flag with a white symbol, and promising to never falter in its duty.

The Navy is Justice. But Justice is poorly defined.

**Author's Note:**

> By request, there's a list of who is being referred to in each paragraph [on my tumblr.](http://hollowistheworld.tumblr.com/post/152252908963/hi-can-i-get-the-list-of-the-navy-is-justice)


End file.
